a. Field of the Invention
The instant invention is directed toward a sanitary cove base. More specifically, it relates to a sanitary cove base that may be installed in relatively hostile environments where controlling, for example, impact damage, mold, and rotting is highly desirable.
b. Background Art
It is well known to use cove base or baseboard to decoratively finish a room where the walls meet the floor. In some environments, the cove base not only serves a decorative or aesthetic function, but also helps prevent damage to the walls. For example, in a bakery or meat processing room, the cove base may serve at least a couple of different purposes beyond mere aesthetics. First, since large carts or palate jacks may be used to transfer items in these types of facilities, the cove base may eliminate or reduce wall damage from food carts or pallet jacks that are inadvertently or intentionally pushed towards a wall since the lower portion of the cart or jack will impact the cove base instead of directly impacting the wall. Second, when cove base is properly installed and caulking compound or grout has been appropriately applied, the cove base can help keep moisture from saturating the lower portion of the walls when, for example, mopping the floor or scrubbing the walls.
In the past, clay tiles (e.g., six-inch tall clay tiles) have been adhered to walls to form baseboards in bakeries, meat processing rooms, and other food storage and handling rooms. Once the clay tiles are installed, the junctures or gaps between the clay tiles adhered to the wall and, for example, the clay tiles adhere to the subfloor are filled with grout or a caulking compound. Similarly, the juncture between the upper edge of the clay tiles and the wall is grouted or filled with a caulking compound. Since a common clay tile used for this purpose is six inches wide, a large number of joints exist along the baseboard. This large number of joints creates an opportunity for moisture to get behind or under the tiles, particularly as the installation ages. Also, when food carts or palate jacks impact the clay tiles, the tiles themselves may become cracked or the joints between adjacent tiles may lose their integrity. Commonly, within a month or two after installation of a clay tile baseboard, water starts to get behind or under the clay tiles, which eventually results in formation of mold that causes the disintegration of the wall and subfloor, and which can contaminate food being processed or stored in the facility. If a facility becomes infested with mold, the facility may need to be shut down and evacuated until the mold is contained and removed, leading to lost revenue for the facility.
Thus, there remains a need for an improved cove base that provides better impact resistance, that may be used when remodeling existing facilities, and/or that reduces the opportunity for formation of mold.